Roman Sexualities

(Paperback)

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A collection of essays seeking to establish Roman constructions of sexuality and gender difference as a distinct area of research, complementing work already done on Greece, in an attempt to present a fuller picture of ancient sexuality. By applying feminist critical tools to forms of public discourse, including literature, history, law, medicine, and political oratory, the essays explore the hierarchy of power reflected in most Roman sexual relations, where noblemen acted as the penetrators, and women, boys and slaves the penetrated. In many cases, the authors show how these roles could be inverted, in ways that revealed citizens' anxieties during the days of the early Empire, when traditional power structures seemed threatened.

Reviews

"Roman Sexualities makes a major contribution to our understanding of the construction of sexuality in Roman society and culture as it moves beyond the more traditional forms of historical and literary scholarship to create illuminating perspectives on the subject in all its multifaceted complexity."--Phoenix

Author Bio

Judith P. Hallett is Professor of Classics at the University of Maryland at College Park. Her many works include Fathers and Daughters in Roman Society (Princeton). Marilyn B. Skinner is Professor of Classics at the University of Arizona. She is the author of Catullus' "Passer": The Arrangement of the Book of Polymetric Poems.